Ottoman "Irregular" Infantry

Balancing up my Ottoman force required some infantry units be painted. The recent arrival of command figures from Warfare (thanks Barry) allowed me to complete a command stand for the Bosniaks I already had. These types of soldiers, raised for a short term period during a campaign, usually had Ottoman Turk officers. I chose a figure with a swanky fur-trimmed coat worn over his shoulders and a circular breast plate. The officer figure was done with richer colours but the others on the command stand kept to the duller limited palette used on the rest of the unit.

The flag was a nice example found for 17th Century Bosnia on the net. 

These types of forces occasionally gave the Hapsburg Imperial forces a bloody nose, particularly on their home terrain. In "With Talon and Claw" these are tribal infantry who deploy in a swarm or mob which probably fair enough. This means they are a bit more brittle than regular infantry but can move faster and through rough terrain more easily. Tribal infantry may also charge steady infantry and cavalry.

The new unit is an Orta of Azabs. These are the militia that was maintained in all the border regions of the Ottoman Empire. The quality of Azabs varied greatly depending on where they were. The better quality end of the spectrum were expected to go on campaign with the main field army although ideally they would free up regular troops from garrison duties.

The figures for this unit are almost all conversions. I took my inspiration from the Bruno Mugnai book on the Ottoman army which has an illustration of a European Azab on one of the colour plates. Most of the figures are Warfare Miniatures Tufeckci musketeers. Always hated these (they were a freebie too, I am SO ungrateful!) Everyone seems to produce Tufeckci based on early 17th Century Azabs. My conversions are to remove all the stupid feathers from their hats and add a simple wrap or turban to most of them. All of the figures also got a longer kaftan and/or baggy trousers. 

The officer is a conversion of a Brigade Games artillerist and the musician based on a Brigade Nizam-i-Cedit figure. The flag bearer is a Caliver/Minifigs model. He is a mountain of a man 6'2" to scale but then that is the sort of chap I would choose to look after the standard! The flag was another found online based on one for an Ottoman province on the Danube.

The Azabs in BLB would also be tribal infantry but I will also try them as regular infantry as they could be considered as capable of basic battlefield formations and manoeuvring. They wont have the special characteristics of Janissary units but could be useful in support of other regulars or in field fortifications.

These two units epitomise the colour and variety possible in an Ottoman army of this period. I plan on completing another unit of Bosniaks and then doing some Albanians and Arnauts. The aim is to field about 50% of the infantry as non-Kapikulu types.

 

Ottoman Massed Timarli Sipahi

Finished and based a unit (2 BLB squadrons) of Timarli Sipahi, figures by Warfare Miniature.



Excellent miniatures, very dynamic and easy to paint (no really!) The riders all have long firearms to attach to their backs which locate nicely with a lug to a small - in the cavalryman. I had read that there was resistance by Ottoman cavalry to firearms but this may be a Western misapprehension.

These join my other 4 squadrons which are my own castings on Warlord plastic horses.



There is no real information about uniforms for this period; not in the regular/guard Kapikulu units and certainly not for the provincial Sipahi cavalry. This allows me to choose a mix of schemes, some units in similar colours some in a complete mix. This will work okay for the successor cavalry to the Sipahi once they pretty much disappear in the mid 1700s.



For the Vienna to Great Northern War period I am going to rate Sipahi as relatively competent. Maybe not as dangerous as previous times (and described as "useless against regular European troops".) However they are still great individual horsemen and relatively keen. No armour at this time and probably no use for the mundane tasks such as picquet duty and scouting but there are lots of other cavalry who can carry these out in an Ottoman force.

This makes 14 BLB squadrons (7 Piquet units) now painted. The infantry need to catch up a bit, next up Azabs, Albanians and some more Janissaries. 

Bloody Xebecs!

It has been good to see how people are making the most of their extra hobby time caused by the Covid lockdown. Premier amongst those are the new series of 17th Century scenario "booklets" produced by Barry Hilton (Wordtwister Publishing.) Have a look at the webshop here: shop

Each of the packs contains a selection of vaguely linked scenarios along with the background and uniform detail where appropriate. In Barry's own words,

 

"The 4 Play concept is designed to achieve multiple objectives for the wargamer First and foremost, it aims to be entertaining In a series of small, quick games, players can grab an hour and complete a single mission or, spend a session completing two or three making for an enjoyable afternoon or evening.)"

This sounded ideal to me, I already have a disparate bunch of 17th Century figures with odds and ends from the ECW, Three Musketeers and War of the Grand Alliance and it is nice to get even a small selection of them on a tabletop. After a good giggle about the name of the project (I'm still very unsure about the idea of paying for 4play...) I had a close look at the sample copy that I had been sent. Small tables and a not too many figures seem to tick all the boxes for quick fun games that can be done over Zoom or Jitsi whilst social distancing is still in place.

As my current detour from the project that is itself currently distracting me from my planned hobby painting, is 17th Century naval games, I flicked first to the naval scenario. A fight in the Gulf of Hormuz, ideal for the smaller vessels and limited numbers that suit my nascent fleets. But then, wait a minute, what the hell are those? Bloody Xebecs!

The Xebec was the descendant of the pirate galleys that plagued the Mediterranean Seas.  They were elegant and fast, lateen sailed ships with a decent broadside and the capacity for a large crew for boarding actions. An easy addition to fleets in dinky little 1/2400 models but not easy to find in 1/450 scale that I favour...

After some fruitless scrabbling around on the Interwebs, all I had discovered that might be suitable was the Pirateology models that must be made of solid gold to command the prices that they do, or print your own 3D models (I don't yet have a 3D printer...) I did  read througha lot of modelling articles in all sorts of materials and that did twig me to a posible donor model, that might allow me to kitbash a couple for my own cheapskate requirements. I dug out the freebie Black Seas sloops that had been taped to the front of one of the Wargames magazines.

  

Quite a small tubby looking boat but suitably heavily armed and no shenanigans cutting it down to the waterline needed. The masts would be no good but are easily replaced. The trickier part would be adding the distinctive pointy prow and overhanging stern that give the type its distinctive looks. I liked the whole notion of pirates and Middle Eastern raiders anyway so I thought I'd give it a go. So far I have added some plasticard pieces to give me the overall outline. Next step will be building on that skeleton with a few bits of putty work to make it look like all one boat. Then new spars and sails. If the process is not too painful I may end up with a small flotilla of Xebecs.

(Of course if you have any sense just get the scenario packs and play them with whatever figures/models you have to hand...)

If you want to see how these ended up have a look on my Workbench blog here...

Ottoman Army Progress

Whilst the T's are crossed and I's dotted on my upcoming house move I decided to get at least a few Ottoman infantry finished. The post-Salute enthusiasm period would not be wasted before I have to pack way my painting desk. First up was the completed unit of 18th C. Janissaries converted from Perry Zouaves with my own sculpted and cast up arms included.

My first time moulded items have worked okay ("good enough for Government work" I think is the saying echoing round my head.) I enjoyed converting one of the Perry figures by adding a Mahdist drum to create a a musician for the unit. The Mahdist figure has bare arms so I added some loose unbuttoned sleeves to the figure. The aggressive look of the unit and slightly irregular feel was exactly what I was aiming for. They are slightly more varied than I was thinking; with not only yataghan swords but firing muskets, pistols and wielding musket butts.

The Bosniak figures from Warfare Miniatures were also crying out to be painted. I wanted these to be a little less brightly coloured than the regular troops of the Ottoman force so I chose a limited pallet for these. Apart from equipment and occasional decoration I went with dark blue, black, brick red, cream and white. Taking a cue from Barry Hilton's technique for these figures I didn't worry about doing highlights after painting and shading. I think the detail is all there in the sculpts.

I am not sure yet if I will give them a command stand made up from the generic officers or I might convert some of the musketeers into an officer and standard bearer.

 

Casting up Some Turks

I have tinkered with home casting of lead* figures in the past mainly using Prince August moulds. Always imagined it would be very satisfying to field an army of miniatures that were my own creations. The whole having to be able to sculpt the master that will be moulded hurdle kept this plan in check for many years but eventually the example of a number of blogs has pushed me to have a crack at it. It was inspiring to see a number of gamers just get on with it and not be too concerned with producing stunning works of art.  (*in fact some sort of white metal that is mostly tin I suspect.)

Prince August home casting kit.

My yen for an 18th Century Turkish army to take on my Austro-Hungarians, looked like a promising object for the plan. For the infantry I decided to use the Perry Miniatures  plastic ACW Zouaves modified to make them less regular and 19th Century looking. For the cavalry I would need an unarmoured rider who would serve as Timariot Sipahis and later mercenary / militia cavalry.  The cavalryman could have a separate head to allow for a bit of variation. Also a right arm wielding a scimitar, which could be swapped out for a lance or firearm for further  multiple use of the basic casting. The cavalry would be mounted on the nice plastic horses available from Perry Miniatures or Warlord Games.  I used a "dolly" from Ebob as the skeleton that I could pose and know was about the right proportions for a wargames figure. Epoxy putty was then added to give bulk to the body as well as clothes / other details.

The masters "ready" to go into a mould...

The infantry figure needed a new pair of arms. One wielding a wickedly sharp looking yataghan sword. The left arm carrying the musket. Again a form constructed of wire and plasticard was made for the putty to be added to. I started with grand plans for half a dozen interchangeable arms for the infantry and horseman but just the three minimum required took long enough to complete. I consoled myself with the fact that I could cut away sword blades to convert the right arms for other purposes (holding lances, flagpoles etc.)

The lego mould box to contain the liquid silicon rubber until it had hardened.

For my first ever silicon rubber mould I bought a tin of the correct grade of liquid rubber from Alec Tiranti in London. It comes with the catalyst that starts the reaction that turns the liquid rubber into the solid mould that can accept hot molten metal. I had read many articles over the years about home casting and got some good advice from current bloggers making their own moulds. I freely adopted the elements of others processes that looked like they would suit me and plunged in to see how it all worked.

Tools and containers required. The liquid silicon rubber stains everything it touches!

Some bits went well: Lego for the mould box was very successful and versatile. I did get a bit too ambitious wit the number of components that I tried to stuff into one mould however (one body, three arms and two heads made the channels that the lead is supposed to travel through very constricted.) At the end of the process however I had a solid chunk of rubber with the clearly identifiable hollows where my sculpted masters had been.

A completed mould!

My lack of experience in laying out my mould became apparent when I poured hot metal into it for the first time. Less than half of the mould filled up correctly, it was a bit disheartening. I did remember that air getting trapped in the mould is a common problem and vents need to be cut to allow it to escape.  Some careful cutting with a sharp knife in the restricted space of the mould gave me the vents and some further surgery to improve the sprue to each component was carried out. Eventually I was getting the entire mould casting successfully on almost every pour!

The mould  with vents cut  and blackened by graphite powder which aids the flow of the molten metal.

Once I had enough bits to be able to construct 8 cavalrymen and convert a bunch of infantry, I stopped the addictive process and went to work on the output. The drawback with my "clever" scheme with all the separate arms now became apparent. Having to glue the bloody thing in place! Yes I do get instant variation in my Ottoman units but I pay for this with having to file every join flat to be superglued. I had probably over estimated where my patience will run out with this. Instead of dozens of units I may not get beyond five or six.

Shiny new castings...

So far then not perfect but more of a success than I had expected. I will have learned from my mistakes for he next moulds. Yes there will be next moulds as the production of shiny new figures from a mould is quite addictive. My Turkish units from these initial castings will have their  shortcomings disguised in the usual way; with nice looking bases and large pretty flags!

Lots of pieces packed in a mould. Too many it turned out. 

Ottoman Foot

As well as casting up my own Ottoman 18th Century cavalry riders, I put into the same mould some pieces to help convert plastic infantry figures. The base figure is the Perry Miniatures ACW Zouave infantry. These are quite close to the look of many Ottoman infantry types (unsurprisingly when you think about it.)

I wanted a less regimented look to my Janissary / Sekban regiments than the poses out of the box. My idea was to have a right arm waving a scimitar or yataghan sword, which would give the right impression of ferocity. This would leave them needing to be holding their musket in the other hand (shoulder straps not seeming to be a thing in this period.) I will go into the sculpting and mould making in another post but I have ended up with a whole stack of the new sets of arms and of course the tedium of gluing the new combination of parts together.

As I am a new and untalented sculptor there is also a fair bit of work with Greenstuff to get the new arms to fit and the results to look remotely human! To keep my interest levels up I decided to paint up the first stand's worth of figures (6 for Beneath the Lily Banners / Piquet). Here it is (the standard bearer is a Brigade Games Napoleonic Ottoman figure.)

(click on image for larger version)

This unit will be in fairly uniform colours although the evidence is a bit lacking, to say the least. I am reasonably happy with the results but happier still that I now have the option of buying Warfare Miniatures take on figures for this period! I will certainly complete the unit with the other two stands and then paint up a Warfare one so I can see how they work together.

My Own Ottomans

 My first unit of Ottoman Sipahi cavalry with a quick paintjob to see how they turn out...

For my first ever sculpt (more or less) and first silicon rubber mould, I am reasonably happy with the results. (I'm not claiming the horses, which are Warlord ECW plastic miniatures - courtesy of their half price sprue sale.)  The acid test will come when they are sharing a table with professionally sculpted miniatures.

These chaps are intended to represent Timarli Sipahis for the first half of the 18th Century. After this the Sipahis were pretty much extinct and I shall be calling these mercenary Levend cavalry.

Ottoman Test Figure

Ottoman armies have always been an interest of mine. One of the key powers through the 15th to 17th Centuries and with an army to be feared; plenty of excellent cavalry and, when Janissaries were added, good, regular disciplined infantry. In addition they had reams of raiding light troops and volunteer mujahedeen types to strike terror into their neighbours.

It is the 18th Century that holds my main interest however. After the narrowly failed siege of Vienna in 1683 the Ottoman state and army went into a period of decline. There were still military successes and attempts at reform but the Ottoman Empire was on the defensive from there on in. There is a real scarcity of information about the Ottoman army of this period (in English at least) which is part of the reason it is less well catered to for wargamers.  Much of what is offered (in 25mm at least) seems to be extrapolated from sources from the early 17th Century and the 19th. Armour does seem to have fallen out of favour, except for a very few Guard units, and foot becomes predominantly musket armed.  Uniforms are not much in evidence, so to my mind it means I have the opportunity to use the same  figures for the bulk of the army throughout the period.

Inspired by  conversion projects seen online, I decide to have a try at converting some suitable plastic figures. After a modicum of research the most promising  subject looked like the Zouaves made by Perry Miniatures for the American Civil War.

Although intended for the later 1800s the general style is based on the North Africans who had been a part of the Ottoman Empire, but could represent the general shape of Ottoman dress on campaign with a bit of adjustment.

   

Some of the fancier braid could be shaved off or just painted over for lower grade soldiers and the turbanned heads included would be pretty close to earlier styles. The biggest issue is the rifle  carried by the figures. A bit of clever converting and painting might do to hide its provenance or a new musket of the earlier style used to replace it. A third option would be to cast up a new arm with the correct weapon and this would enable some change to the pose of the figure at the same time.

I had the idea that I would want the Ottoman regiments I would create to have the look of aggressive troops, ready to get into hand to hand, even if this wasn't quite the truth for the period... Thus having them charging with sword in hand and musket carried in the other might give me a morale advantage as they are deployed onto the table (however little they live up to this subsequently!)  This ambition would require the creation and casting up of some new arms with the correct weaponry, as life is just too short to do individual conversions on hundreds of foot soldiers. I have always fancied a go at this anyway but I decided I would make up one prototype and paint it before diving into this.

The officer sprue in the Zouaves box has an army wielding a likely looking sabre, close enough to a scimitar for this test.  A number of arms were then hacked to pieces and putty and wire forced into a shape vaguely resembling an earlier eastern type of musket.  I also considered chopping back some of the kit carried by the ACW infantryman but relented and left it in place. Why make myself more work at this stage? A quick coat of paint to hide the worst of my cack-handedness and he was done.

I am reasonably happy with that. It gives the required impression of "charging in with cold steel"  and exotic easterner.  Several regiments of these wielding purposeful yataghan swords rather than girly scimitars will I hope give an opponent pause for thought. Time to practise those putty pushing skills...